


Mey-Gon 03 - The Mission

by SexyWookieeSquadron



Series: Mey-Gon stories [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A-Wings (Star Wars), Cantina (Star Wars), Cockblock C-3PO (Star Wars), Escape, F/M, Falling In Love, Force Choking (Star Wars), Force Mind Reading (Star Wars), Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Jedi Artifacts (Star Wars), Knights of Ren - Freeform, Kyber Crystals (Star Wars), Leia Organa Deserves Better, Leia Organa Needs a Hug, Lightsabers (Star Wars), Loneliness, Lor San Tekka - Freeform, Mentioned Darth Vader, Mentioned First Order (Star Wars), Mentioned Han Solo, Mentioned Kaydel Ko Connix, Mentioned Luke Skywalker, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Protective Leia Organa, Protective Poe Dameron, Psychological Trauma, Resistance Spies (Star Wars), Space Battles, Space Mom Leia Organa, The Resistance Era, Trauma, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:09:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29935980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SexyWookieeSquadron/pseuds/SexyWookieeSquadron
Summary: It's not easy to make friends when most of the Resistance thinks you're an out-of-touch celebrity that's just using their base to hide out from your problems. Despite Leia's best efforts to protect her, Mey-Gon is determined to prove herself on a real mission. With Relix by her side, it should have been a fun mission. It should have been an easy mission. But when things go very wrong, it sets both the Resistance and the First Order on a new path, racing toward the same goal. Will Mey-Gon's involvement in such a dangerous mission finally earn her some respect? Will a certain someone find that he cares more than he realized?
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Original Character(s)
Series: Mey-Gon stories [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057475





	Mey-Gon 03 - The Mission

Two shuttles zoomed overhead, arcing away from the base with an X-wing flanked on either side. They were outbound, so identifying them wasn’t really necessary; but Mey-Gon figured it would be good practice, so she held up her scanner and pointed it towards the shrinking ships. Within a couple seconds, all four identification codes populated onto the screen of her device with the approved symbol alongside each one.

Troop transports and fighters. No doubt they were on their way to prevent another First Order attack, and hopefully they would make it in time. Mey-Gon remembered well the terror of facing down stormtroopers alone when help had come too late. And she also still recalled the aftermath she’d witnessed in the towns where help hadn’t come at all. Part of her longed to go on a combat mission too, just to really feel like she was fighting the First Order; but she probably wouldn’t be much help, considering her training results.

Leia required that every Resistance member be combat trained - from the lowest mechanic to the top command - just in case the base ever came under attack. Even with all her stunt experience, Mey-Gon knew she was no fighter. She wasn’t particularly fast or strong, and outside of memorizing choreography, she had no instinct for combat moves. Weapons training had produced similar disappointing results. She knew how to handle various kinds of blasters and rifles, but her target accuracy averaged around 37%. Practice would improve both skills, hopefully, and she was determined to prove herself worthy of a real battle someday.

She tried to twirl the scanner around in her hand but fumbled it and winced as it clattered to the platform floor. While she picked it up and inspected it for damage, she heard the hum of an approaching speeder and knew that her replacement would be taking over in a minute. Luckily, the device had survived the drop and shouldn’t give the next shift any trouble. That was the last thing Mey-Gon needed tacked on to her reputation.

Besides combat training, Leia also preferred everyone to be cross trained to do several jobs, so that, in emergencies, someone was always qualified to jump into any position. Most beings trained for a few duties but excelled in a particular one and stayed there mainly. Mey-Gon had bounced from position to position over the past couple months and never really got the hang of anything. At first, Leia had tried to keep her close by assigning her to the control room, but the systems and codes were far too technical for her; so she tried maintenance, but had to rely on droids for most of the mechanical jobs. From there she’d been shuffled through various duties where her lack of skill couldn’t cause much damage.

“Hey!” she greeted cheerfully, peering over the edge of the platform at the girl jumping out of the speeder below, “That time already?”

“I’m sorry!” the girl scrambled for her chrono, “Am I early? We don’t have to change shifts yet, if you’re not ready.”

“No, no, you’re on time. I was just...” Mey-Gon frowned, “Come on up.”

As she triple-checked that she was leaving the radio and scanner in good condition, she tried not to let the frustration show on her face, lest it be misinterpreted by her replacement. Making friends was proving hard enough for her already. Maybe it was the fact that she hadn’t worked in one position long enough to become part of a team, or maybe it was the general confusion or nervousness that a lot of beings seemed to develop when interacting with her. All her life, she’d been surrounded by people trying very hard to be her friend, so she had never had to make this much of a personal effort before. It was yet another thing she was discovering she had no natural talent for.

“Sharp eyes, safe skies,” Mey-Gon smiled as she handed over the scanner. It was something she’d thought up over the last few hours of solitude, and she was quite pleased with herself for it.

The girl just blinked, then broke into a nervous grin and nodded, “Yeah...you too…”

Mey-Gon held in her stiff sigh until she had climbed down from the platform and hopped into her landspeeder. Maybe there was a reason she kept getting assigned to solo duties away from the base lately. She didn’t mind this post - the jungle out here was beautiful - or the occasional supply runs up to the fleet hidden in D’Qar’s orbital ring, but the constant distance from her Resistance comrades did little to improve her social skills.

The route back to base took several minutes, so she lifted her knees to the steering bar and used her arms to rearrange her hair into a more flattering style, now that she didn’t have to wear the helmet anymore. She liked to look nice whenever she was off duty, and she was eager to get out of this uniform. Eagerness was no excuse for sloppiness, though, so she slowed down as she entered the main thoroughfare of the base and navigated her way to the hangar garage where all the land vehicles were stowed, amongst other things. There were even a few swoop bikes tucked away somewhere, but Leia had made it clear they were for missions, not joyrides; and Mey-Gon had yet to be sent on a mission.

With the landspeeder parked securely in its spot, Mey-Gon climbed out and unclasped her uniform jacket, leaving it open to expose the fine pink blouse she had been wearing underneath. She was pleased with how well it reflected her personal style, even when tucked into the tailored trousers that went with the drab jacket. It would have to do until she got the chance to change into one of her dresses for the evening. As she walked around the parked vehicles, she spotted two Ithorian mechanics chattering melodically in their language as they rubbed down an astromech droid straight out of an oil bath.

“Hi, guys!” Mey-Gon waved and the chattering stopped, “Need any help?”

There was an awkward silence as the Ithorians tilted their heads to and fro to look at her through one eye at a time. She had no capacity to read their expressions, if they were even wearing any, and didn’t really expect an answer, since they were incapable of speaking Basic; so the awkwardness hung there until the droid tootled a friendly reply. Mey-Gon wanted to kick herself when she realized that she couldn’t understand droids either and there was no elegant way out of this stupid attempt at casual interaction. Her only solace was that the droid was BB-8, and that meant Poe was probably nearby. He was one of the few people who did talk to her occasionally, and there was an inexplicable comfort she got from being around him. Perhaps it wasn’t inexplicable, actually, but she didn’t want to think about it too much.

“Okay, carry on,” she backed away from the mechanics and heard them pick up their conversation again as she made her way toward the front of the hangar.

“Mey-Gon!” a familiar voice called when she neared the flight simulation pods.

“Relix!” she brightened and changed course to see what he was working on.

Other than Leia, Relix was probably the person Mey-Gon spent the most time with and was the closest thing she had to a real friend on this base. Of course, he was friends with just about everybody, but somehow he still took the time to include her in some of his projects and social activities. He was good at nearly every job, so whenever Mey-Gon got reassigned, she could always count on him to show her the basics. Unlike most of the others, Relix never acted awkward or impatient with her, and was consistently positive and encouraging. He was the nicest, most genuine human she’d ever met; and despite joining him often at the blaster range, she couldn’t actually imagine him shooting anybody, not even a stormtrooper.

“Are you done for the day?” he asked as she approached, and his BD unit, which he called Codey, chirped at her in greeting from where he was perched on Relix’s shoulder.

“Just got back from my last shift at the lookout point,” she nodded, peering into the open control panel that he was leaning over, “Trouble with the sims?”

“They keep going out of sync,” he swept a hand toward the other three pods, which the pilots used to simulate different battle scenarios together from the safety of the hangar, “But I’m pretty sure the glitch is coming from this one.”

“It’s definitely this one,” groaned a female voice and Mey-Gon looked up to see a human pilot leaning out of the pod they were working on.

“Hi, Tallie,” Mey-Gon greeted.

“Hey, Mey-Gon,” she returned, not exactly coldy, but warily, then looked at Relix, “Did you find the source yet?”

“Oh yeah, I got it,” he assured her, “It’ll just take me a couple minutes to clean it up and reboot the program.” He shot Mey-Gon an eager grin, “If you want to wait for me, I was thinking we could go work on your ship. I’ve been brainstorming different ways to coax a little more power into the sublight engines.”

“That sounds great,” she brightened, “Take your time, Relix. I’ll wait for you.”

Despite her initial attempt to donate her private light corvette to the cause, Leia had insisted that Mey-Gon keep ownership of it. As a result, she was now one of the few beings in the Resistance to have a personal transport; and it was a privilege that didn’t go unnoticed, like most of the other privileges that she enjoyed as a favored friend of the general. Still, she only ever used it for the occasional trip up to the fleet on supply missions or as a sanctuary of privacy when she was having trouble sleeping in her assigned bunk in the barracks. As much as the corvette had comforted her with its familiarity and reminders of her old life at first, they were both slowly transforming into something new in the service of the Resistance. Relix and his mechanical friends had been dying to give the luxury transport a military makeover, from weapons to shields to engines. He was constantly enthusiastic about making new modifications and Mey-Gon was always eager to try them out. It was one of their favorite projects to work on together. She was even considering giving the ship a proper name in honor of its transformation, though she hadn’t settled on one yet.

As Relix and Codey turned their full attention back to the open control panel, Mey-Gon wandered over to the break station and grabbed a cup off the shelf. Out of habit, she rotated it under the light and frowned at the dirty smudges around the lip. It may be a garage break station, but she still couldn’t understand why other beings cared so little about cleanliness. Then again, it wasn’t like she would be using it to drink purified comet glacier water, like she used to have imported to her mansion. She meticulously wiped the cup clean, then filled it with tap water and sipped delicately as she moved back toward the pods to wait for her friend. He was calling back and forth with Tallie inside the pod, asking her to check things every time he made an adjustment under the hood.

Mey-Gon leaned against the outside of the next pod over, carefully watching the exchange over the top of her cup. She’d always been good at studying people and imitating the traits she chose. There was a stark difference in the way Tallie - and almost everybody else, for that matter - talked to her, compared to the way they interacted with Relix. What did he do differently? She needed to figure it out and try it, herself.

Suddenly the hatch she was leaning on popped open, bumping her forward and sloshing her next sip of water down her chin and onto her nice blouse. She groaned and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand.

“Oh, hey, Mey-Gon,” Poe hopped out of the pod, “You joining in for the next sim?”

“What? No,” she shook the water off her hand in exasperation and glared at the spreading wet spot on her chest, “Why are you so determined to embarrass me?”

“Embarrass you? How?” he smiled innocently, even after glancing down quickly at the evidence of the spill he had caused, “Are you nervous?” he teased as he pulled a small bottle from his pocket, “Maybe you’d like a little liquid courage.”

“I don’t  _ get _ nervous,” Mey-Gon said defensively, even as she eyed the bottle, “...but I would like some.”

“It’s yours,” he tucked it into her hand and relieved her of her cup, draining the rest of the water into his own mouth before elaborating, “Some girl up on the flagship gave it to me, but it’s not really my taste. I figured you’d like it.”

As she uncapped it and took a few experimental sips, she witnessed Poe half-heartedly wipe the water cup off with his shirt then walk over and set it back on the shelf she had taken it from. She made a mental note to thoroughly wash all break area dishes  _ before _ using them from now on. When he returned, she couldn’t help but hum approvingly at the smooth flavor of the amber liquid, “I  _ do _ like it. How’d you know?”

He grinned and leaned in close, whispering, “Because you’re an alcoholic.” She made an indignant noise and bumped him away with her shoulder, making him laugh as he shrugged, “Well, I only ever see you at the bar anymore.”

“That’s because I don’t get sent off on hotshot missions all the time, like some people.”

His smile tightened, “That’s because Tatooine would freeze over before the general put you in harm’s way, like some people. And not just because your combat scores are so low.”

“Why do you know my combat scores, Poe?” she scowled, actually embarrassed this time.

“I’m gunning for a promotion,” he explained proudly, “and every good commander should know the strengths and weaknesses of those around them. What I  _ don’t _ know is your performance in a fighter, so hop in and we’ll load up a new battle scenario.”

It was tempting,  _ terribly _ tempting. Mey-Gon missed the speed, maneuvers, and competitiveness of racing so much. The slow, safe life of base duty the past couple months had left an aching pit in her stomach that used to be filled with passion and adrenaline. Plus, there was something about starfighters, especially X-wings, that she had always been attracted to. She’d been dying to train in one, but never had an excuse until now. Normally, she’d ask Relix to be the one to instruct her through something new, because he was never judgmental; but there was such sincere interest in the look Poe was giving her that she felt maybe she could trust him as a teacher too - at least when it came to something he loved as much as he clearly loved flying.

“I would...” she admitted slowly, “but I don’t know how to fly stick.”

“Seriously? It’s completely intuitive,” he lifted his forearm up in between them, then grabbed her hand and held it down on top of his fist, moving his arm like a flight stick as he identified the directions, “Pitch, yaw, roll left, roll right...see? Easier than the yoke in your corvette. You can just follow my lead in the first round; I’ll be your wingmate.” His smile betrayed just how excited he was about finding someone new to fly with, but Mey-Gon was still distracted by having her hand trapped between his, so she simply nodded. Poe turned his head to call toward the other pod, “What do you say, Tallie? You and Relix against me and the princess?”

Tallie exchanged a look and a playful shrug with Relix, then she called back, “Sure, we should be all synced up again now.”

Poe looked back at Mey-Gon, quite pleased with himself, for some reason.

“Fine,” she pulled her hand back to uncap the bottle for one more quick drink before the looming humiliation, then tucked it away into her jacket, “but go easy on me until I get the hang of it, all right?”

“You’ll do great,” he assured her, then helped her up into the simulator he had been using, “Here, this one’s all set up and ready to go. I’ll jump in one of the other pods.”

Mey-Gon settled into the seat and looked around at the replica cockpit, feeling her heartbeat start to speed up in anticipation. Suddenly her view was obstructed by Poe leaning over her in the confined space as he pointed out various buttons and switches.

“Okay, most of the control panel should be familiar,” he rattled, “Pretty standard, like any cruiser. You’ve got your various indicators, monitors, warning lights, inertial damper...this one is deflector shields, targeting scope...trigger controls here on your flight stick, this one for laser cannons, this one for torpedoes. Here’s your comlink, which goes through your helmet…”

He grabbed the helmet off the top of the panel and fitted it carefully over her hairdo then adjusted the mic angle to line up with her mouth. It was a completely different design than her swoop racing helmet, but Mey-Gon probably could have figured it out herself. Still, she was more amused than annoyed at the way Poe was fussing over her. Whether she embarrassed herself in this first simulation or not, it was just nice to find something new to share with him - something that disrupted his usual cool demeanor and had him looking even more excited than her. And she had to admit she was pretty excited, not just about trying her hand at piloting a fighter but also about finally getting a chance to see Poe in action too. The man had a reputation for a reason.

“Okay,” he leaned back, “That’s about it. Just buckle in the harness - I’ll let you do that yourself - and when I close the hatch, the screen will-”

“Oh, excuse me! Wing Commander Dameron,” a distinct voice rang out from the hangar floor and Mey-Gon saw Poe’s eyes narrow in annoyance.

“What is it, Threepio?” he asked without even turning.

She perked up to peer over his shoulder at the gold droid. Almost everyone seemed to develop the same look Poe was now wearing whenever C-3PO interacted with them, but Mey-Gon was delighted by his presence. Protocol droids reminded her of rich, well-traveled beings and made her feel like she was on Hosnian Prime again or some other important place. If she hadn’t found such a good publicist, she might have employed a protocol droid, herself, back at the height of her success.

“Ah! Miss Niek,” he lifted his arms, “Just who I was looking for, in fact. General Organa requires your attendance.”

“Oh,” Mey-Gon bit her lip, momentarily tempted to have Leia wait until she’d passed at least one round in the simulator, but the temptation fled as quickly as it had come. She met Poe’s eyes apologetically as she pulled the helmet off and smoothed her hair back, “Sorry, Poe. Princess business.”

His genuine look of disappointment cracked when one corner of his mouth twitched in appreciation of her joke, “Next time, then.”

“Next time,” she promised and let him help her down out of the pod.

“I’m sorry, but have you seen Lieutenant Nalen?” C-3PO asked her, “He is being requested as well, and I’m aware he was working here not long ago…”

“Yeah,” Mey-Gon nodded then yelled toward the most distant of the four pods, “Relix! We have to go!”

“Coming!” he yelled back.

“Hey, Poe,” Tallie called, relief audible in her voice, “Since it’s just us, do you want to attempt a pass at stage eleven?”

“Yeah, let’s go for it,” he hopped back up into the pod, his energy returning.

Mey-Gon lowered her head to rub self-consciously at the wet spot on her shirt before finally clasping her uniform jacket back up. Maybe it was better that she didn’t slow down the practice exercises for the real pilots, after all. Her desire to have some fun was ultimately a waste of their valuable time.


End file.
